The Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) plunged 22.86 per cent this morning, after it resumed trading for the first time in five weeks.

The country’s banks – Piraeus Bank, National Bank, Alpha Bank, and Eurobank – were the biggest losers, each suffering heavy losses of around 30 per cent. Banks make up about 20 per cent of the Greek index.

The exchange had been shut down on June 26, ahead of the government’s imposed capital controls to stop the possibility of capital flight from the country.

Market mavens had been expecting the sell-off with, Takis Zamanis, chief trader at Beta Securities, yesterday saying “the possibility of seeing even a single share rise in tomorrow’s session is almost zero”.

It comes as Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras agreed to begin negotiations on a new €86bn (£61bn) bailout deal.

Talks on the deal will continue tomorrow, with a view to wrapping up an agreement before 20 August, when €3.2bn is due to be paid to the European Central Bank.